The Bennett family has a secret: They're not just a family, they're a pack.

Wolfsong is Ox Matheson's story.

Oxnard Matheson was twelve when his father taught him a Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Then his father left.

Ox was sixteen when the energetic Bennett family moved in next door, harboring a secret that would change him forever. The Bennetts are shapeshifters. They can transform into wolves at will. Drawn to their magic, loyalty, and enduring friendships, Ox feels a gulf between this extraordinary new world and the quiet life he’s known, but he finds an ally in Joe, the youngest Bennett boy.

Ox was twenty-three when murder came to town and tore a hole in his heart. Violence flared, tragedy split the pack, and Joe left town, leaving Ox behind. Three years later, the boy is back. Except now he’s a man – charming, handsome, but haunted – and Ox can no longer ignore the song that howls between them.

The beloved fantasy romance sensation by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about love, loyalty, betrayal, and family.

I’ve loved some of Klune’s books, but some not so much. This is one of the not so much ones. Maybe because the whole idea of loving someone without actually knowing them is usually a basis for things going bad. And I don’t get the idea that Ox and Joe really know each other. Mostly, they just seem hot for each other. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I would have liked to see the relationship grow over time. For them to come to like each other.

About halfway through the book, one of the other characters describes their relationship like this:

Oh my god, Ox, your life is like those shitty sparkly vampire movies. That I’ve never seen and don’t like at all, shut up.

Maybe not the most elegant way of describing them, but certainly succinct. I don’t know if Klune was poking fun at himself, or trying to be able to say “oh, no, it’s not at all like that.” But it is. And the sturm und drang never lets up, which makes it hard to like either Ox or Joe.

At this point I’m not sure if I’ll be reading the next book in the series. Part of me wants to, but a big part of me doesn’t.




( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-40 )

41. Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith
42. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
43. Yankee Privateer (Lyon Family #1) by Andre Norton
44. Say Goodbye for Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde
45. Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
46. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
47. The Zero Stone (Murdoc Jern #1) by Andre Norton
48. Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV by Karleen Koen
49. Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon
50. Caballero: A Historical Novel by Jovita Gonzalez, Eve Raleigh
51. The Upwelling (The Hidden #1) by F. Paul Wilson
52. Xeno by D. F. Jones
53. Grant's Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon by Louis L. Picone
54. Wolfsong (Green Creek #1) by T.J. Klune












DEC - "Cover Love" - Read a book with a cover you love!⁠

Wolfsong by TJ Klune

Vampires have always lived in Eastern Europe. But with the fall of the Soviet Union, they began to spread across the continent, then the world, turning whole populations into vampires--or human cattle. Having overrun India, the far East, and the great cities of North and South America, the forces of Night are now spreading into the countryside to consolidate their conquest.

In a town on the New Jersey shore, the vampires have just arrived, along with their human henchmen, the cowboys, who round up human cattle for the overlords in return for the promise of eternal life---later. For the vampires wish only a few of their own kind to rule, and feed. The rest of humanity are to be helpless herds, the source of the blood of life.

Falsely accused of abuse, Father Dan is drunk in a basement waiting for the end. His superior has betrayed the local Catholic congregation and become a vampire. Sister Carolyn has become a formidable killer of cowboys and vampires. Dan's niece, escaped from the conquest of New York, has made her way south to find him. Brought together by Rabbi Zev Wolpin, who is shaken by the vampires' fear of the cross and holy water, they plan their resistance. Against all odds, they discover that there just might be a way for humanity to really fight back. But first they will have to kill the vampire king of New York.

I became a fan of Wilson’s after reading The Keep years ago. There are similarities to this story, but differences, too. This book takes the vampire legend back to its roots, back to the vampires of Stoker and King. There’s nothing romantic about these creatures.

I loved all three protagonists. Father Dan, who reluctantly becomes the local leader in the fight against the vampires. Sister Carolyn, whose loss is what propelled her to take on their foe. And Dan’s niece, Lacey, who has made her way to her uncle’s side. Oh, and I guess the fourth of our intrepid band would be the rabbi, Zev Wolpin, who brings Dan back to his congregation, and who is his conscience.

What made the book so readable for me is that the pace is just the right speed; no dragging out of fights, yet the reader is given time to learn about the people, both those fighting against the vampires, and those working for them.

My only quibble would be the ending. It was satisfying, but I would have loved to know what happened next.




( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
29. The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner
30. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes
31. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
32. Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques
33. Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. Legends by Robert Silverberg (Editor/Contributor)
35. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 1) by Jasper Fforde
36. Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan
37. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
38. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
39. The Hike by Susi Holliday
40. The Opal-Eyed Fan by Andre Norton
41. Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith
42. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
43. Yankee Privateer (Lyon Family #1) by Andre Norton
44. Say Goodbye for Now by Catherine Ryan Hyde
45. Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson







OCT - "Wicked Good Reads" - An ode to Girlxoxo's annual WGR event. Ghosts, Witches, Vampires, Creeptastic or Magical books.

Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson

In Derry, Maine, four young boys once stood together and did a brave thing. Something that changed them in ways they hardly understand.

A quarter of a century later, the boys are men who have gone their separate ways. Though they still get together once a year, to go hunting in the north woods of Maine. But this time is different. This time a man comes stumbling into their camp, lost, disoriented and muttering about lights in the sky.

Before long, these old friends will be plunged into the most remarkable events of their lives as they struggle with a terrible creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.

Though there is an Author’s Note at the back of the book where King thanks his time writing this book (in longhand!) for getting him through his near fatal accident, I’ve read that, since, he no longer cares for it, because of the difficult circumstances and his being under the influence of painkillers. He may feel it interfered with his ability to turn out quality work, but I think it’s one of his best attempts.

As with It the lives of the protagonists are woven together, as young boys and as men. The magic of their younger days is what allows them to come together as adults to fight off the evil that threatens them.

The years have not been kind to them; none have found true happiness. While Henry and Gary Jones (Jonesy) have found career success as a psychiatrist and a college professor, respectfully, Pete and Joe Clarendon (Beav,) have seen their dreams shattered. Pete never made it to NASA, while Joe’s marriage failed, and his drinking began.

Yet there still is that connection, through “Duddits,” the boy with Down’s Syndrome they saved from bullies; they’re “brave thing.” But, as with each other, time has weakened that connection.

It’s a huge book (coming in at over 600 pages,) and there’s a lot going on, but at its core it’s a story of friendship and how far believing can get you. I found it exceptional, and well worth the time it took to read. And, maybe at some point, read again.




( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
29. The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner
30. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes
31. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
32. Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques
33. Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. Legends by Robert Silverberg (Editor/Contributor)
35. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 1) by Jasper Fforde
36. Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan
37. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King







Winter theme, or winter on cover
1. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King





AUG - "Seasons, Elements, Weather" - Read a book where the season, weather, climate, or elements play a roll in the plot.⁠

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

The master humorist and bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods now guides us on an affectionate, hysterically funny tour of America's most outrageous absurdities.

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly three million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new-and-improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.

Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. From motels ("one of those things--airline food is another--that I get excited about and should know better") to careless barbers ("in the mirror I am confronted with an image that brings to mind a lemon meringue pie with ears"), I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles the quirkiest aspects of life in America, right down to our hardware-store lingo, tax-return instructions, and vulnerability to home injury ("statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or underpants than by a stranger").

Along the way Bill Bryson also reveals his rules for life (#1: It is not permitted to be both slow and stupid. You must choose one or the other); delivers the commencement address to a local high school ("I've learned that if you touch a surface to see if it's hot, it will be"); and manages to make friends with a skunk. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

The book is a collection of articles written by the author for a weekly column in an English newspaper after his return to the US. He’s been away for twenty years and a lot has changed. Yet, some things, not at all.

Some of the articles are truly funny, while some just brought a smile or a quiet chuckle. I especially loved those whose experience I shared, such as going to the drive-in, or boarding a plane.

And then there are those that are thought provoking, as the author struggles with attitudes that have hardened while he was gone. Though written in 1999, many of those articles still resonate.

The book holds its own against other Bryson books. Though perhaps not as funny as A Walk in the Woods, it’s certainly on parr with In a Sunburned Country. It’s gentle touch made it well worth reading.




( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-15 )

16. Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
17. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
18. The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right by Sally Denton
19. The North Woods by Douglass Hoover
20. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
21. Upon Dark Waters by Robert Radcliffe
22. Dread: 22 Tales of Terror by Kevin Bachar
23. Escape from Hell (Inferno #2) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Jennifer Hanover (Illustrator)
24. Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy by Donald L. Miller
25. The Portent by Marilyn Harris
26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson







JUN - "Comedy Club" - Read a book that's guaranteed to make you laugh.⁠

I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson

In March 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally became the nation's thirty-second president. The man swept in by a landslide four months earlier now took charge of a country in the grip of panic brought on by economic catastrophe. Though no one yet knew it-not even Roosevelt-it was a radical moment in America. And with all of its unmistakable resonance with events of today, it is a cautionary tale.

The Plots Against the President follows Roosevelt as he struggled to right the teetering nation, armed with little more than indomitable optimism and the courage to try anything. His bold New Deal experiments provoked a backlash from both extremes of the political spectrum. Wall Street bankers threatened by FDR's policies made common cause with populist demagogues like Huey Long and Charles Coughlin. But just how far FDR's enemies were willing to go to thwart him has never been fully explored.

Two startling events that have been largely ignored by historians frame Sally Denton's swift, tense narrative of a year of fear: anarchist Giuseppe Zangara's assassination attempt on Roosevelt, and a plutocrats' plot to overthrow the government that would come to be known as the Wall Street Putsch. The Plots Against the President throws light on the darkest chapter of the Depression and the moments when the fate of the American republic hung in the balance.

It’s amazing how every once in awhile, usually when they’ve lost an election, the far right decides to take matters into their own hands, often with violent intent.

I had heard of both the assassination attempt and the plotted coup; both are well explained here with Denton’s coverage of how things unfolded once FDR became the Democrats’ nominee. While FDR would get flak from both sides, It was from the right that the true threat came. They would denounce him both as a socialist and a fascist (how someone can be both, the right has never bothered to explain,) Unfortunately, while thoroughly covered, I could have wished for better structure in the writing.

The strange plot cooked up by a group of Republican donors and Wall Street bankers, though found to be true by a Congressional committee, has never been well advertised. Maybe it’s about time that it was.




Mount TBR 2024 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. Bone Walker (Anasazi Mysteries #3) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
2. Holly by Stephen King
3. Inferno (Inferno#1) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
4. Fallout (Lois Lane #1) by Gwenda Bond
5. The Secret People by John Wyndham
6. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
7. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
8. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
9. Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara
10. Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts by Shanna H. Swan, Stacey Colino
11. Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
12. Night Songs by Charles L. Grant
13. President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier by C.W. Goodyear
14. The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin
15. Mine by Robert R. McCammon
16. Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
17. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
18. The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right by Sally Denton







APR - "Who's In Charge Here?" - Read a book where the character's involvement in Royalty, Government, a Kingdom, or any ruling body plays a roll.⁠

The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R. by Jules Archer, Anne Cipriano Venzon
(Foreword)

In this utterly transporting reimagining of Greek mythology, the god of desire is cursed to fall for a spirited young mortal woman, but if she looks upon his face they will be parted forever—an epic adventure and love story for the ages, sure to satisfy fans of Madeline Miller and V.E. Schwab

Who said true love is a myth?

A prophecy claims that Psyche, princess of Mycenae, will defeat a monster feared even by the gods. Rebelling against her society’s expectations for women, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing to meet her destiny.

When Psyche angers the love goddess Aphrodite, she sends Eros, god of desire, to deliver a cruel curse. After eons watching humanity twist his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world. But when he pricks himself with the arrow intended for Psyche, Eros finds himself doomed to yearn for a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet.

Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. And as the Trojan War begins and divine powers try to keep them apart, the pair must determine if the curse could become something more . . . before it’s too late.

A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, Luna McNamara has crafted a shimmering and propulsive debut novel about a love so strong it defies the will of Olympus.

I wanted to like this book; I really did. The myth of Psyche and Eros (or Cupid and Psyche, as I’ve always known them,) is probably my favorite classical myth. But it’s not a very good book. Forget about all the name dropping (if there’s a mythical character not mentioned, I don’t know who it is,) I just couldn’t get past the reimagining of the two main characters. Neither are especially likable, and Psyche comes across like a modern teenager. She’s spoiled, she shoots her mouth off, and she’s constantly making stupid decisions. Eros doesn’t seem as bad, but that may be because he’s less of the story’s focus.

Leaving that aside, I was amazed at the sloppy research. Eros speaks of terriers, which weren’t around until the 1800s. That’s AD, not BC. And how in the heck does Psyche know about the adrenal gland and adrenaline? The Greeks may have noticed the small piece of matter during a dissection, but they had no idea as to what it did.

Slightly worse are the grammatical slips. Using “I,” instead of “me,” as in “…it will hurt both Psyche and I later (“hurt I later”?)

There are a few good passages, as when Psyche goes with Iphigenia to the wedding she thinks awaits her, that make the book at least passably readable. But mostly, I wouldn’t bother.




Mount TBR 2024 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. Bone Walker (Anasazi Mysteries #3) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
2. Holly by Stephen King
3. Inferno (Inferno#1) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
4. Fallout (Lois Lane #1) by Gwenda Bond
5. The Secret People by John Wyndham
6. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
7. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
8. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
9. Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara

















FEB - "Dynamic Duos" - Read a book with a couple of characters that make the perfect pair- whether in business, friendship, or in love.⁠

Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara